Upcoming Events

Neighborhood Council Vote on Wilbur Road Diet

This is the MOST IMPORTANT and FINAL meeting regarding the Wilbur Ave. street configuration.
The public should attend. Especially those who live in the neighborhood!

We fought HARD to get the board to have the meeting within the boundaries of the neighborhood where the street resides. Come out and represent your interests.

The LADOT will be presenting it’s proposed plan to the audience for questions and to the combined Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council and Northridge West Neighborhood Council boards for a FINAL secret ballot vote. Yes. I said secret ballot. I have contacted the city attorney about this, and am awaiting a written verification that elected representatives can hold a secret ballot. Some members of the Northridge west board have vowed to make their vote public. As a representative of the people of Northridge West I will make my vote PUBLIC as well!

Why the short notice?
The Northridge West Neighborhood Council eeked out a motion last night intentionally giving only 6 days notice of when the final presentation and LADOT vote is occurring. After howls of protest from BOTH anti-road diet people and pro road diet people in the audience, President Tom Johnson insisted and pushed hard to get a vote to pass a motion to have the meeting this Tuesday the 15th public notice be darned! After a 6-6 tie another vote was taken passing the motion 7-5. The date was to be confirmed today which it finally has. We have 6 days to get the word out. HELP!!
When: Tuesday, March 15, 2011
6:00PM to 8:30PM Come out even if you are late!

COMMUNITY WALK TO THE MEETING!
Please consider that our friends in Porter Ranch are going to need a LOT of parking. Lets be sure to welcome them with plenty of space!
We will be hosting a group walk to the meeting. No matter how you feel about the road diet,

COME WALK WITH US!

South end walk meet at 5:30pm
Start location is the Prairie and Wilbur Crosswalk and heads north on
Wilbur… meet at the beginning or come to your nearest Wilbur corner and
join us as we walk up to Superior and join with the North Walk group!

Let’s make some friends and discuss the issues
as we enjoy the neighborhood. Daylight savings time is this weekend,
it will be a perfect evening!
North end walk meet at 5:30pm
Start location for the north is at Mayall and Wilbur.
Head south to Superior where we will all meet and walk
to Nobel Jr. High for the meeting.

NO HARD FEELINGS no matter what your position is.
Let’s make some friends and discuss the issues
as we enjoy the neighborhood. Daylight savings time is this weekend,
it will be a perfect evening!

I have a really good idea for you Don. After you get the street screwed up why don’t you petition to chang the name to Don Ave.
I resent you talking about us like we are OUT OF THE AREA drivers. I live 1 block west of Wilbur and work 1 Block east of Wilbur. I have as much right to this road as you do. Wilbur was built as a 4 lane street long before my home was built, and yet the city planners knew it would be necessary when homes were built in the future. Knowing that many many car wouldhae to use it. They knew what they were doing then and they were right.If you don’t like living on a main street with traffic call me I’ll be happy to help you find a new home on a dirt road if that would make you happy

Syzlak

Wasn’t the street put on a road diet because it was running under capacity? Screwing it up? It seems the DOT has been efficient and wise in implementing a bike lane because cars were given too much space. A bike lane should not be removed to accommodate rush hour, a small portion of the day as the safer, calmed traffic runs 24/7. The LADOT bike blog makes a convincing case for road diets http://ladotbikeblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/05/safety-traffic-and-you-the-case-for-road-diets/

Here’s an excerpt from the article: “Though bike lanes on Wilbur Avenue are on the 1996 bike plan, the idea of a road diet on Wilbur Avenue sprung from non-bicycle factors. LADOT traffic engineers, after reviewing both the average speeds on the street and the history of crashes along the road, determined that a road diet would make the street far safer for all users without significantly impacting congestion. The resulting road diet ended up providing benefits to all users.”

Why does the street solely have to be dedicated to cars? Why should cars get curbside parking, two lanes of traffic in each direction and leave cyclists with no dedicated space and leave pedestrians with an intimidating situation as cars speed heedlessly? This situation doesn’t sound fair to cyclists or pedestrians or motorists who desire a safer street.

http://safestreetsnorthridge.blogspot.com Don Ward

Hi Fred. That’s not cool at all to say things like that. In fact your words hurt. Damien will you please delete that comment it’s un-called for.

Hi Carol, there are many people who don’t think the street is screwed up and actually like it. I’m one representative for that voice which was not included from day one of the whole process. Are you saying that people can’t try to protect Wilbur as a residential street?

Did you have a voice in 2009 when the LADOT tried to take out the crosswalks on Wilbur and 600 + people signed petitions for the crosswalks to stay? Did you attend the Neighborhood Council meetings where the public showed up to protest their removal along with the removal for parking for the folks on Reseda?

I’ve walked the neighborhood many times talking to people about this. I know not everyone likes the street design, but I do know that there are a majority of people who do because it has slowed down cars.

The more that cars are flushed through a street the more decay it causes a neighborhood. The last thing we signed up for was to have Wilbur become a major thoroughfare like Reseda or Tampa. You can’t blame people for wanting calmer safer people friendly streets can you?

http://safestreetsnorthridge.blogspot.com Don Ward

Here are some other opinions of the road diet from the people who live there…